A ‘loophole’ which permits companies to recruit non-EU workers to UK companies without needing to advertise jobs in the UK first should be closed as UK unemployment spirals, the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) has told the Home Office in a letter.
 
In its letter to Phil Woolas MP, the Home Office minister responsible for immigration, APSCo urged the government to force firms to advertise vacancies in the UK first before being allowed recruit from overseas offices.
 
Ann Swain, chief executive at APSCo, says: “The Home Office needs to close this loophole as a matter of urgency. The UK labour market has the capacity to fill the vast majority of these vacancies, so companies should be recruiting here first before resorting to importing staff from overseas.
 
“The costs to the UK of unemployment are substantial, so anything that can be done to reduce unemployment needs to be looked at.

“The government’s supposedly tougher new immigration system has failed to significantly slow the influx of non-EU workers to the UK. This is because any company which has an office abroad can recruit overseas and simply ship workers across to the UK, bypassing most of the checks on immigration.”